“You assist an unjust administration most effectively by obeying its orders and decrees. An evil administration never deserves such allegiance. Allegiance to it means partaking of the evil. A good person will resist an evil system with his whole soul. Disobedience of the laws of an evil state is therefore a duty.”
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An unjust system runs on the everyday cooperation of the people it governs; every order carried out is a small vote of support. Once you see compliance as active participation rather than neutral survival, withdrawing it stops looking reckless and starts looking like the one honest response left.
When to use it
- Employees who stop covering for a boss's fraudulent billing remove the quiet cooperation the scheme depended on.
- Shoppers boycotting an exploitative product cut off the revenue that kept the practice profitable.
- A student body that refuses to enforce an unfair rule leaves the administration with nothing to lean on.